The Salt Cellar, Shipley

After the very busy Fanny's Alehouse just across the road, with maybe 40 or more people drinking cask beer, this was a bit of a come down. There are four hand pumps, but no one else that I could see in the pub was drinking it, apart from our small pub research team. We took our beers into the quieter room, which has the feel of a games room or sports bar, and compared temperatures. Mine was coldest, possibly as low as six degrees, with others varying but not one was in the range we expect for well kept cask beers. This tells me that there had been quite a bit of time gone by since any of these had been poured, before we arrived. We had found the SALT place at the junction busy, with cask beers flying out, and we were to find the same at the Beehive along the road into Shipley. So three out of four real ale pubs in a half mile stretch were busy, this one was not.

An excellent job of breathing new life into a tired old pub. Sadly the wonderful but formidable landlady wasn’t working on my visit but her influence was apparent. A high quality, friendly pub with decent beer, six pulls of mostly local beers. Two bars, public and lounge although nowt to choose between them, both are nice.

This is something of a contrast from Fanny's as it is an original two bar pub with a very well maintained and comfy interior. The public bar has become a gin bar and looked empty on my Friday afternoon visit. The Lounge bar was fairly busy, well lit with comfy furnishings. There was a table of shrieking harridans near where I sat and I felt sorry for the solitary young male in the group who clearly wasn't equipped with ear plugs. I was told later that the group were all teachers, I just hope that none of their pupils were present! The bar has six hand pumps which had Oscar's Werewolf Dark Mild, Bingley Salt Cellar (house beer), Blonde & Easy Peasy Tangerine plus Settle Ernie's Milk Stout and Blonde. I went for the Mild (£3.30 discounted) and the Milk Stout (£3.33 discounted) both of which were in good nick. I liked it here and would return but somehow the more shambolic Fanny's appealed more. It's GBG 2020 listed.